Q&A

Q: Does the life-sized piano that Tom Hanks plays in "Big" really exist somewhere?

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Author: 
Adam Thomlison / TV Media

It does, at the legendary FAO Schwartz store in New York, and though lots of things have changed since then (Hanks is an Oscar-winning dramatic actor now, and FAO Schwartz has been bought by Toys 'R' Us), the store remains remarkably the same as it was in the film.

The floor piano is still a main attraction at the store, which is itself a major attraction for downtown New York, located as it is on 5th Avenue, a few blocks from Central Park.  

But in fact the one at the Schwartz store in New York, and another at Schwartz's other location in Las Vegas, are replicas.

The original piano that Hanks and co-star Robert Loggia played on - a rendition of Hoagy Carmichael's piano-duet classic "Heart & Soul" - was purchased by Merion, Penn.-based private collector Joseph Shein shortly after the film was released. After a couple of decades of presumably recreating the scene in his basement, Shein donated the piano to Philadelphia's Please Touch Museum earlier this year.

"I am thrilled to add this icon of the big screen to our collection," said the museum's CEO, Nancy Kolb. "The movie as a whole and the piano scene in particular captures the innocence and enthusiasm of childhood. Much like a children's museum, it is about the joys of childhood and how, as we grow older, we play less but we never completely lose that desire to be a kid again."

The fact that it has found a home in Philadelphia will likely please its creator, Italian-born designer Remo Saraceni, whose Museum Interactive Technologies company is based in the City of Brotherly Love. He's been building such high-concept toys for decades now, the Walking Piano (as he dubbed it) being the most famous.

But Saraceni's company seems like a youngster compared to the venerable FAO Schwartz, which was founded in Baltimore in 1862 by German immigrant Frederick August Otto Schwartz.

His store was a quick success and in a few years he had opened locations in Philadelphia, Boston and, in 1870, New York City.

The company has changed owners many times since, most recently being in May of this year, when giant toy-store chain Toys 'R' Us bought it up. The chain has promised to keep the stores in New York and Las Vegas open and under the original brand.